Rawalpindi - Two accused, including a grandson of the Punjab law minister, escaped from the court premises after an additional district and session judge rejected their pre-arrest bails in a monetary fraud case, sources informed The Nation on Thursday.
The accused were identified as Raja Shah Nawaz alias Raja Shani, the grandson of Punjab Law Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja, and Faheem Anwar Shah. However, the court confirmed the interim bail of the second grandson of the minister namely Raja Shehbaz.
The Civil Line police booked as many as six accused namely Raja Shehbaz, Raja Shahnawaz, Haseeb Abbasi (driver of the relative of minister), Faheem Anwar Shah, acting DSP Traffic Police Abrar Qureshi and his son Afaq Qureshi under sections 420/4688/471 and 506 of Pakistan Penal Court in 2018 on complaint of a citizen Navid Nafees. All the accused were alleged for swindling Rs10 million from Navid by selling him blocked files of Behria Town.
Interestingly, the prime accused acting DSP Abrar Qureshi was not arrested by Rawalpindi police and he left for attending an advance course for promotion in Lahore. Similarly, another accused Haseeb Abbasi, who is said to blue-eyed of former Tehsil Nazim Hamid Nawaz Raja (cousin of Muhammad Basharat Raja) has applied for pre-arrest bail but had not appeared before the court with surety bonds to get the bail. The other accused including Afaq Qureshi is still at large without facing the investigators and court of law.
According to sources, ADSJ Muhammad Ejaz Raza heard the case when the prosecution argued that the accused have swindled a huge amount from his client and threatened him of dire consequences upon demanding back the looted amount. He told that police are being pressurised by a politician against the arrest of the accused. He prayed to the court to reject the bails of the accused. Opposing the arguments of the prosecution, the defence lawyer said his clients are innocent and have nothing to do with the crime. Therefore, the court should confirm pre-arrest bails of his clients, he argued. After concluding the comments of both parties, ADSJ Muhammad Ejaz Raza rejected the interim bails of Raja Shahnawaz and Faheem Anwar Shah. However, both the accused fled from court premises.
Station House Officer (SHO) Police Station (PS) Civil Line Inspector Mian Imran, when contacted, confirmed that the court dismissed the interim bails of the accused and then both managed to run away from the court premises before police could arrest them. “I will get the arrest warrants for the fleeing accused and will apprehend them soon. Similarly, police will move an application to the court to declare the fleeing accused as proclaimed offenders,” he said.
On the other hand, Chief Traffic Officer Muhammad Bin Ashraf, when contacted by The Nation and asked as to why acting DSP was allowed for attending the promotion course despite his involvement in criminal activities, said: “The FIR is filed against him last year for his alleged involvement in some monetary transaction. Information about registration of any FIR against any official is being given to us officially by the district police and then the official is suspended and after investigation when the official is found guilty then he is dismissed from the service.
In this case, we were not informed about this FIR or outcome of investigation so officially we have nothing. But as I always keep check on my subordinates, I unofficially know that he was declared innocent in first zimni by the investigation officer so no legal ground stands against Ibrar”.
He added that FIR is the first information report so just having FIR against any official is no legal ground for departmental action.
The CTO said sometimes case gets cancelled, sometimes accused declared innocent so it all depends on outcome of investigation.